AFC conducts U-23 Championship 2016 draw on Saturday

Sixteen teams participating in the AFC U-23 Championship 2016 will learn their opponents during an official draw to be held in the Qatari capital city of Doha on Saturday.

The draw will be held at the Four Seasons Hotel at 12pm (Qatari time/GMT+3) for the competition which will be held from January 12 to 30, 2016.

Ten nations qualified for the competition after finishing as the qualifying group winners while another five earned the right to compete in Qatar as the best second placed teams. Qatar qualified as the hosts.

During the draw, Qatar, as hosts, will be placed the top-seeded country, while the rest of the teams will be seeded based on their rankings at the AFC U-22 Championship Oman 2013.

The 16 teams will be divided into four groups of four teams each and each group shall play a one-round league. The top two teams in each group (eight teams in total) will qualify for the knockout stage.

The champions, the runners-up and the third-placed team will qualify for the Olympic Football Tournament Rio 2016.